What we learned hiking the Narrows: Tips for First-Timers

so i'm guessing if you are watching this you are probably considering hiking the narrows you might be wondering how far is it is it safe do i have the right equipment there's a lot of questions i think a lot of times when people hear about the narrows they think about the 16 mile overnight hike that you need a permit for but really you don't really need to do that if you have average ability you can hike the narrows and in this video we're going to show you how to but to start off we want to show you some video clips of what the hike is like [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so i heard people online on videos say that doing the narrows is like walking on wet bowling balls and certainly there are as you can see a lot of rocks um i wouldn't say they're wet and slippery though now that might be because i'm wearing the water boots that we rented [Music] but it's it's not something i don't think where you're gonna be slipping and falling down uh like that i think it's very very doable those ladies back there one of them didn't want to use a stick so there's a few people in here that don't have sticks okay we got about almost waist deep water here the water is cold it's not freezing cold i thought it would be actually colder than it is but but it is it is chilly [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] as you can see it's not water the whole way most of the way but there are little spots where you can get out and walk a little ways so i wanted to talk a little bit about the socks and the boots that they give you when we first got in we put our feet in the water and they didn't get wet we kind of wondered if they were like water repellent but it just took a minute and then they then you can feel the water um so you do feel the water squishing around in your socks and boots a little bit not a big deal of course uh and then i'm i i can't compare obviously to walking with regular shoes but i wouldn't try it i wouldn't try walking with you know your regular shoes i would definitely rent the water boots and the socks for traction and for comfort and then you don't want your shoes to be wet the rest of the day anyway [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're laughing because everybody on the shuttle is falling asleep [Music] okay we hope that video gave you a feel for what hiking the narrows in zion national park is like and now we want to go over some steps to help you prepare to do it so step number one is to choose the time of the year that you want to do it in the spring and summer is the most popular time to do it because you don't have to wear a wetsuit so if you go during the winter you're gonna need to wear uh a wetsuit at least up to your waist or your chest uh like waders type of a thing if you're gonna do it in the spring keep in mind that the water is colder because it's coming down out of the hills above zion is actually even though it's in the desert it's actually fairly high elevation about three thousand four thousand feet something like that so the water's gonna be colder and the currents are gonna be stronger because the water is coming down out of out of the hills above out of the mountains above we did it in september and i thought that was perfect because the weather there is still really warm it's up in the 80s and even 90s during the day and the water is not as cold right the water was really quite nice temperature actually one thing to consider is the flow rate you have to kind of understand just a little bit about the flow rate we won't go into great detail here but i'll put a link in the description um how you can find the flow rate the bottom line is if the flow rate is under 50 then it's a very doable hike when we did it it was in the 30s and we saw kids doing it we saw some older people doing it if it's above 50 it gets to be a little bit more challenging if it's over 150 they don't let you do it at all so keep that in mind as you check the link number two is plan your entire day uh like we um the start point for the narrows is at the very end of the canyon so you're going to be taking the shuttle all the way to the end to the templates in a wava doing the one mile river walk and then you're going to get in the river at that point and you know this is definitely a hike that can take four to ten hours depending on how far you go and how quickly you go this is not like a typical hike because you are in the water it's going you're it's going to be slow going you're going to be going against the current one when you're going out there and so that does slow you down plus there's a lot of people you're maneuvering around so it's just it's very slow going and the height can take a while if you are wanting to do another hike you're going to have to consider gear for that other hike because the the gear that you use for the narrows you know you're in the water whether you choose to rent gear which we recommend or bring your own you're going to need to bring another pair of shoes and then you're going to need to consider carrying those you know another thing we recommend having is a stick or poles because you are walking on wet rocks that are slippery that you'll want to be prepared and how you're going to get all that gear around so you'll want to make a plan before you leave for the day and um and that is something i want to tell you about is something coming out very soon before the 2021 season is we will be coming up with a step-by-step itinerary to do zion national park i caught the itinerary because matt makes our itineraries and they make our vacations so incredible so easy so fun and so be checking back to um our videos be checking our website whereintherockies.com for our itinerary coming out but back to step number two you're going to want to have your day planned out before you leave to make sure you have the necessary gear you just turn around whenever you want to so the question is when to turn around and so you really kind of have to plan your full day out and so that's what the goal of our itinerary is is how to have a more efficient trip and how to plan all the logistics of this out okay step three is to plan your gear so this is a a really important one for the narrows okay so you can park in the national park parking lot which is just on the other side of that bridge over there you walk past that little kiosk down the bridge that kiosk leaves the park you'll have to have your receipt or parked pass to get back in and then you can go right over here to zion outfitters and get your stuff that you need for the narrows and then head back okay so you come across the bridge there you tell them what size of shoe you want right there the kiosk they'll give you some shoes and socks to put on then you go inside back in there pay your money and then you'll walk back out that door and fill out the waiver right at that little kiosk that you can see right there so you pay inside and then you follow the waiver right there now we're here in september so we got the summer package you can see everybody's got their sticks and then they have socks and shoes so that's the summer package for 25 bucks a stick socks and shoes as it gets colder in the winter you can get waders that go up to your waist but right now they say that's gonna overheat you because the temperatures are still getting up into the 80s during the day so what they recommend is just these socks and shoes they're called they call their summer package you can see there's a sign here on the flood danger today which is unexpected and so of course that's a big deal the flash floods around here that you need to keep an eye out for all right so we got here at about 7 15 it is now about 7 40 and we're just finishing up here it hasn't taken us too long i had to try two different pairs of shoes to get the right size they do not have half size shoes so you're going to have to go with the next step or the next down depending on what is best fit for you and now uh we're just within walking distance of the shuttle we'll help we'll head over there and be there in about five minutes now one of the most as you saw in the video that we showed one of the most common things is to rent your gear from zion outfitters which is located just outside of the park and you can do that for 25 bucks for the summer package i'm not sure how much the winter package is but you are going to need a backpack and a backpack that will again carry your gear throughout the day and so it needs to be big enough to carry shoes and and all that and with that you need to have a dry bag in there because you're going to be carrying well first of all you might you might trip in the river and i did actually i'm pretty i'm fairly sure-footed but i tripped and i dropped my phone in the river i had my phone in my pocket i was taking video and photos with it and all that and i dropped it in the river and so a dry bag for your your backpack will come in handy so that you can put your stuff in there and then i think when you're done with the hike if you're going to put your wet gear in there your shoes and socks you'd want to put it in the dry bag for the rest of the day so it doesn't get you all wet and i wanted to point out that the canyoneering boots that you rent those are great to hike the narrows in and they're fine to walk on that one mile river walk out to the narrows where you get in the river but they are not boots you'd want to wear around everywhere else they are like the neoprene socks are designed to keep your feet warm so you would just your feet would burn up if you wore those around other places so plan on having a change of shoes that's why we say plan your day shoes and socks because if you're doing anything else besides the narrows you're going to need a whole different set of footwear um and that actually kind of gets me to the next thing i told you i dropped my phone in the river so if you're wanting to take videos and photos i think a gopro would be a really good idea i left my gopro inside but a gopro with a with a cover a case for it for the water would be a great idea for video okay and then also trekking poles uh you can rent the poll you can rent one poll from zion outfitters as part of that 25 package but we saw many people with their own uh poles with their own sticks determined there's three types of hikers on the narrows the noobs which is us today which is us who rent our gear we get one pole we got the water shoes and all that one pull there are the experts which bring two poles like that guy right over there he's prepared look at that he's got two poles he's he's done this and then there's go ahead the people who are savage no pole and i think you definitely want to pull my opinion is you definitely want a stick and one was fine for us but i i do think two could be nice especially if i was carrying a baby on my back if i had a little child like i saw a few people yeah it's a real trick with like the backpack you know we mentioned the backpack need to be big enough to fit your additional shoes in but your water you know a camelback is a great system because you can just drink while you're going along but either way you know you're gonna want to carry some water in there too but the whole point is to keep your hands free besides holding onto those poles or stick because you you need your hands to to help navigate through there um those like i feel pretty sure-footed but i'm glad that i had i at least had a stick and the nice thing about the poles if you choose to purchase those is that you know we didn't really want to deal with having a hiking stick around for other hikes because we did more hikes after the narrows that day we didn't want to have to have that on our other hikes where with the poles you know you could fold those up clap them down they can collapse down to like 22 inches throw them in your backpack and you're good to go yeah yeah that's a the poles that they or the stick that they give you is just a big wooden stick so i wouldn't want to go hiking around emerald pools with a big wooden stick and then and then if you are carrying a baby on your backpack or on your back we would recommend getting an ergo we have four children and we've carried all of them through infancy and toddlerhood and all that stuff and ergo the ergo baby carriers are the way to go they are a million more times better than some of those those big metal ones that that they sit up in and and you're more sure-footed on with with the nergo too they sit close to your back and they don't get you kind of top-heavy so i would definitely recommend that if you're if you're carrying a baby okay getting there step four you're gonna need to take the zion shuttle um catch it at the visitor center and then ride it all the way to to stop eight temples and awava that we're making this video during coven shuttle tickets are hard to come by watch our video we have a great video on how to this the system works on reserving your tickets but if you can't get a ticket through them there's another option you can go get a private shuttle that runs for about forty dollars through design guru there's a couple of places like zion guru and zion zion adventures i think so there's a couple of businesses that will take you to the end of the road there and drop you off zion guru i mentioned because they will drive you there and rent the gear to you so that might be a good one okay step five is to go before you go at the temple of cinewava stop number eight there's a restroom there and you should use the restroom before you go on the hike because the hike is as cheryl mentioned it's quite a long hike depending on how far you go and a lot of people have to use the restroom on the hike and there's no privacy just saying it's a narrow little canyon that's why they call the narrows and there's no privacy there pretty much there's a few rocks you can kind of climb behind but it's not it's not much so if you have to go to the bathroom really bad on the hike they actually encourage you to go in the river if you're peeing okay to get in the riverways all right as dimitra martin says there's a big difference between peeing in the water and peeing into the water okay you want to get in the water and pee okay now if you had to go number two you can try to find some place to go behind a rock or something like that but they you need to carry it out you need to have a bag and carry it out uh it is a thing it's a common question and you're out there for a long time and honestly we were walking at one point up along the shoreline and it did smell like urine like people had peed on the side right you guys remember that i did not remember that i was happy i missed that detail so they said don't don't i mean if you're gonna pee pee pee in the river because uh otherwise it'll be it'll stench up the canyon if everybody's peeing outside so these are the logistical frequently asked questions that we are trying to deliver here on this channel okay tips and frequently asked questions so when to turn around just when you feel like it um well and and a large part of that is planning out your day what other hikes you're going to do but and how wet you want to get you know like when we went it like after not that long it was up to like chest level and we decided that was not something we wanted to do um so and that's kind of where i say you know most people can do this most people can do this because it's not like there's an end you have to get to i think there is kind of like a waterfall area but you don't have to get to that just go do what you're comfortable doing yeah there's a few landmarks if you go up you'll run into a little fork in the road and the canyon goes up called orderville canyon some people like to scramble up there for a little ways and then turn around they call it wall street right there and so you can eat continue straight on the main canyon there and eventually you'll have to turn around at a place called big spring i believe it's called that's quite a ways out so but that's another possible turnaround point honestly for us i think we went about two miles out i believe and uh probably could have turned around anywhere i wouldn't say you need to get to a particular landmark or destination as long as you're happy but it is cool and around every corner it's like a new amazing site so i mean very beautiful you'll be glad you got it and did it even if you only go half a mile you'll it's it's really quite a jubilant thing it's like grown-ups it's like grown-ups being kids again they're in the water they're splashing around they're seeing something totally new and it's really fun and exciting and i would say a quick ninja tip is that the return trip is faster because you're going with the flow and again okay oh hey just turn off your cell phone while you're in there yeah they're not going to get serviced it's going to drain your battery and you want to save that for your pictures and video is a tip for you yeah airplane mode or something yeah most of zion canyon you don't get reception um you can at the visitor's center area but as you get into the further into the canyon you don't okay who can do it uh we saw we saw some some really fun women in their 60s that were doing it we saw some parents that were doing it we saw some younger kids that were doing it we were kind of wondering if our kids would be able to do it and we had a little disagreement there um but but i think they'd be able to do it and our kids range from 7 to 14. yeah the reason i said no on our kids is just that at some parts the water would be up to like mid thigh on him and the current was i thought fast enough that would kind of knock him over and so we'll we'll see if the shaw's kids get to go to the narrows next time we go maybe we'll tell you in our next video or something what we end up doing but um but we saw another family that had a couple of kids always have plenty of kids doing it actually yeah we did see some kids doing it and we saw some parents hiking with babies on their backs too every once in a while you have to kind of cross the river at almost a perpendicular angle um and so that in those spots you might want to hold their hands or something like that okay uh maybe clothing it gets a little cooler in the canyon as you get in there you're in this really deep canyon it's about 2000 feet high walls and and only you know 50 to 60 feet across at a lot of points so it does get kind of chilly in there yeah it's colder there than it is everywhere else and so you see a lot of people that are like wearing jackets and sweatshirts in there so i used to think that if you were coming to zion you'd want to be like in your khaki cargo shorts t-shirt that is not how women dress at zion national park spandex and sports bra are is like the new thing to do dress here like you were going to work out wear your workout shoes your workout clothes i am over the hill and i'm not going to run around in a sports bra and spandex although i did wear my my spandex pants um i i have on my fabletics which i love because first of all they last forever but they also they their their whole thing is they want their workout clothes to look like cute outfits and so you can wear something like that around all day and and look pretty good get an early start uh this hike is so popular that that you want to get there when there's less people there because the river is literally filled with people yeah and when we were coming back it was around 12 or 1 o'clock or something like that and there was there was a pretty good crowd of people coming of course the farther you go up the canyon the more it thins out because not as many people go that far okay then finally can you get lost um no the answer is no just follow the river yeah it's just all the river there's no there's no trail it's just the river so you're just walking along the river and there's no other offshoots to go other than that one orderville canyon a little fork in the road and either way is fine but then just come back yeah so just to recap step one just know the time of year you're going and the special conditions that go with it plan your day so you can plan your gear make sure you have the right equipment and then step four was run around in a sports bra and spandex you know just know how to get there you're going up the shuttle and then go before you go yeah so i you you can completely do this i i don't think you should feel intimidated by this this is a doable hike with not a real set end on it so just go get in the water splash around and see the amazing things that zion has to offer we have other videos on zion national park as well as some of the other national parks so please subscribe if you find any interest in this video and we'll see you next time

Channel: We're in the Rockies

Views: 180,032

Keywords: zion, the narrows, Zion national park, Saint George, St George, Springdale Utah

Id: 9y5GgDcFrkc

Length: 24min 2sec (1442 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 04 2020